Singapore Management University
Singapore Management University (SMU) is the third autonomous university in Singapore. The university provides broad-based business programmes modelled after the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. SMU was established on 29 July 2000 and is located in the Downtown area of Singapore. It has a city campus with a total enrolment of about 10,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students and comprises six schools offering undergraduate, graduate and PhD programmes in business administration, business analytics, financial services, accountancy, economics, information systems management, law and the social sciences. The university has over 30 research institutes and centres of excellence, and customised corporate training and lifelong learning for individuals are available through the university's professional and executive development programmes. SMU is accredited by the AACSB International, EQUIS, and AMBA. History In 1997, the Singaporean government began considering setting up a third university in Singapore. Ho Kwon Ping, a Singaporean business entrepreneur, was appointed to chair the task-force which determined that the new institution would follow the American university system featuring a more flexible broad-based education. Following a review of undergraduate business schools to serve as a model for SMU, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania emerged as the best candidate. The Wharton-SMU agreement was signed in February 1999 followed in June by the Wharton-SMU Research Center collaboration. In July 1999, Janice Bellace, then Deputy Dean of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, commenced a two-year term as SMU's first president alongside founding provost, Tan Chin Tiong. In 2000, SMU made its first home at the former Raffles College (now the National University of Singapore's Bukit Timah campus) on Evans Road near Hwa Chong Institution. The campus, first opened in 1929, had already been home to several institutions before SMU. In 2001, SMU upgraded and occupied the main campus facilities, balancing the need to refit and refurbish it with facilities while preserving the heritage of colonial architecture. From 2001 to 2004, Ronald Frank served as SMU's second president and was succeeded by Howard Hunter. Between 2000 and 2005, SMU saw the formation of four schools, its library and three centres of excellence as well as the graduation of the first batch of its students. After that, SMU moved from its Bukit Timah campus to its current campus in the Bugis-Bras Basah district. Since then, SMU has expanded, with the establishment of its School of Law in 2007 and the restructuring of its School of Economics and Social Sciences into two separate schools: the School of Economics and the School of Social Sciences In 2010, Yong Pung How and Arnoud De Meyer took over the positions of SMU Chancellor and President from Richard Hu and Howard Hunter respectively. In 2015, J. Y. Pillay replaced Yong as SMU's Chancellor while Lily Kong succeeded De Meyer as SMU's President in January 2019. Lim Chee Onn succeeded J. Y. Pillay as Chancellor in August 2019. Faculty SMU has a 350-member faculty that includes industry experts and trainers. Academics SMU follows a course credit system similar to that used in most American universities. Each individual course within the university is assigned a certain credit weightage and students are usually required to take a specified number of units to fulfil requirements for graduation. Courses are typically conducted as small group seminars of under 50 students so as to allow for a high degree of interactive discourse between students and instructors. Admissions SMU admits students from a list of pre-university or high school qualifications that includes the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level, diplomas from the five polytechnics or two arts institutions and International Baccalaureate diploma once a year. For entry to graduate or master programmes, SMU requires GMAT and TOEFL or IELTS for most of the majors. Some majors also require submission of essays, recommendation letters, and a minimum of two years' work experience. Second Majors SMU offers 43 second majors to undergraduates. Upon completion, they receive one degree certificate and a second major will be indicated in the result transcript. Double Degrees Undergraduates who are offered a double degree programme have 20 combinations to choose from. They can combine any of two disciplines: Accountancy, Business Management, Economics, Law, Information Systems Management or Social Sciences. Graduates will receive two degree certificates upon successful completion of the programme. Schools and programmes School of Accountancy The School of Accountancy (SOA) was launched in 2001 with the Bachelor of Accountancy (BAcc) undergraduate degree as its sole offering. In 2005, the school launched the Master of Professional Accounting (MPA) programme for professionals without undergraduate accounting qualifications. Both the SMU MPA and BAcc are accredited with the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA), Chartered Accountant of Singapore, the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), CPA Australia, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). Lee Kong Chian School of Business The Lee Kong Chian School of Business (LKCSB) holds the status of being SMU's founding school, opening its doors to its pioneer batch of Bachelor of Business Management (BBM) students in August 2000. The school was named after the philanthropist Lee Kong Chian. The school offers the Master of Science in Applied Finance (China) programme, a collaborative effort between SMU and Wang Yanan Institute for the Study of Economics (WISE) at Xiamen University, and the Master of Science in Communication Management (MCM) in partnership with Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) and with 10 days spent at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. The newest programme offering the Master of Human Capital Leadership (MHCL) has been accredited by Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development and the students visit the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for their overseas segment. The School also offers a PhD in Business Programme with concentration in Finance, Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources (OBHR), Marketing, Strategy & Organisation, Operations Management, or General Management. School of Economics The School of Economics (SOE) was established in July 2002 as part of the then School of Economics and Social Sciences (SESS). Following restructuring, the university's economics faculty was separated from the social sciences to form a school of its own. This restructuring was largely accepted as a sound decision in view of the fact that SOE's curriculum had been modelled on that of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania instead of following the traditional social science-type economics curriculum found at most other institutions. As of now, the SOE offers the Bachelor of Science (Economics) as well as Master of Science programmes in Economics and Applied Economics. In 2007, the School also introduced a PhD in Economics programme. School of Information Systems The School of Information Systems (SIS) was formed with the aid of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) when SMU and CMU forged a four-year strategic partnership intended to use the expertise of the CMU faculty in the school's initial establishment. Through this partnership, CMU aided SIS in establishing and developing the Bachelor of Science in Information Systems Management undergraduate programme, including the establishment of the flagship SMU-CMU Fast-Track programme, which enables SIS students to graduate within four-and-a-half years with both a bachelor's degree from SMU and a master's degree from CMU. In 2007, both universities agreed upon a four-year extension with CMU now providing support in the establishment and growth of SIS's postgraduate education offerings. Under this agreement, the two universities also increased their focus on collaborative research efforts leading to joint faculty research outputs, funded projects and graduate student interaction. SIS offers the Master of Science in Information Systems, Master of IT in Business (MITB), as well as the PhD in Information Systems programmes, in addition to its Bachelor of Science undergraduate offering. The Master of IT in Business (MITB) augments its Analytics and Financial Services Analytics Tracks' offering with Harvard Business School's HBX Credential of Readiness (CORe) online programme. SMU is the first educational institution in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to incorporate HBX (CORe) into its master's programme. School of Law The School of Law (SOL) is SMU's smallest school with an annual intake of around 180 students. The establishment of the SOL was announced in August 2007. Previously, the SOL existed as the Department of Law under SMU's Lee Kong Chian School of Business, where it was chaired by Andrew Phang. Its current Dean is Goh Yihan, who succeeded Yeo Tiong Min in July 2017. The SOL offers the Bachelor of Laws (LLB) undergraduate programme, as well as an American-style Juris Doctor (JD) programme. The school also offers a Master of Laws (LLM) programme, with the option of a dual LLM with Queen Mary University of London. School of Social Sciences The School of Social Sciences (SOSS) was established in July 2002 as part of the then School of Economics and Social Sciences (SESS). Through a restructuring exercise in 2007, the School of Economics and School of Social Sciences were separated to form independent schools within SMU. The SOSS's primary offering is the Bachelor of Social Science, a multi-disciplinary undergraduate programme. Within this programme, three main majors are offered, namely political science, psychology and sociology. In addition, the SOSS offers a PhD in Psychology. Executive Development In addition to its traditional academic programmes, the University also runs executive education and development programmes for leaders at four stages of their career: emerging leaders, general managers, senior executives and corporate directors. These courses include Executive Skills for Board Members in Challenging Times; SNEF-SMU CEO Seminars: The Art & Science of Productivity Leadership; and Johnson & Johnson-SMU Hospital Management. SMU Academy SMU Academy offers programmes for working professionals, to provide continuous lifelong education through diplomas and certificate programs. This includes a combination of practical industry knowledge and general management skills. University rankings and accreditations * SMU was the first university in Asia to be accredited by Ashoka, a global non-profit organisation supporting leading social entrepreneurs worldwide, as a Changemaker Campus. SMU Libraries The SMU Libraries consists of the Li Ka Shing Library and the Kwa Geok Choo Law Library. Institutional Knowledge (InK) InK, Institutional Knowledge at SMU is the institutional repository and archives of the Singapore Management University. It acquires, organises and provides access to the research and scholarly works of SMU faculty. Collections in InK include journal articles, working papers, conference proceedings, books, book chapters, reports and other research works including the dissertations and theses of postgraduate students and a collection of print and video teaching cases. In addition, there are also the heritage and research data collections.